Birthday Presence

There’s no end to birthdays, but today’s is special—it’s Tippi Hedren’s eightieth, and Tippi Hedren is one of the greatest actresses in the history of the cinema. It’s an odd thing to say, given how few truly great films she’s appeared in (though, happily, she’s still acting—IMDb lists her as being in pre-production on a pair of films)—but her performances in two films, her first, Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds” and “Marnie,” define what it means to act in the cinema. Namely, the antithesis of theatre. Her performances there hardly depend on impersonation and almost totally on presence, on that which is beyond the control or even the reach of acting technique: character. The essential difference between cinema and theatre is that a movie actor can be plucked from the lunch counter at Schwab’s (or, in Hedren’s case, from a commercial on the “Today” show) and, without much technique, quickly become a screen idol. The chill that emanates from Hedren in “The Birds” and “Marnie” can’t be learned or copied (this doesn’t mean that she’s a cold person, but that Hitchcock found and captured something in her that others may never have otherwise seen).

On the other hand, the film’s styles are open to all—a reminder that today is also Cindy Sherman’s birthday, and the “Untitled Film Stills” with which she launched her photographic career are an enduring tribute to the tones and moods of that distinctively cinematic mode of performance. (Also, thanks to David Hudson at The Auteurs Daily for tweeting this link to a Tippi Hedren slide show.)

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